Qualcomm finds more patents Apple "borrowed"

Apple's legal spat with Qualcomm just got even messier as the chipmaker found even more patents which it thinks that Apple is using without permission.

Qualcomm filed three new patent infringement complaints against the fruity cargo cult saying there were 16 more of its patents that Apple was using in its iPhones.

The new complaints represent the latest development in a long-standing dispute and follows Apple’s countersuit against Qualcomm, which alleged that it invented part of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips.

Qualcomm in July accused Apple of infringing several patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life.

That case accompanied a complaint with the US International Trade Commission seeking to ban the import of Apple iPhones that use competing Intel Corp (INTC.O) chips because of the alleged patent violations.

The three cases filed Thursday were all filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. One of the cases is a companion civil lawsuit to a new complaint also filed Thursday with the ITC that seeks the same remedy of banning iPhones with Intel chips. The other two cases are civil patent infringement lawsuits.

It all started when Apple tried to increase the margins for its dying iPhone cash cow. It decided that Qualcomm was asking too much and demanded a reduction.

In a related suit, Qualcomm sued the contract manufacturers that make Apple’s phones, but Apple joined in to defend them.

Qualcomm in November sued Apple over an alleged breach of a software agreement between the two companies. Apple emailed Qualcomm to request “highly confidential” information about how its chips work on an unidentified wireless carrier’s network, Qualcomm alleged, but Apple had copied an Intel engineer in the email for information.